Grau Brings Sunshine To Boardsailors

February 4, 1987|By JEFF BROWNE, Staff Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Jon Grau likes to spend most of his free time windsurfing. Ever since he took up the sport five years ago, the Michigan native has devoted much of his life to boardsailing on the ocean.

Grau is the president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Boardsailing Association and works full time at Windsurfing Madness on Sunrise Boulevard. Rarely an hour goes by that Grau isn`t thinking about windsurfing.

In 10 days, though, Grau may experience the roughest weekend of his life. Sunshine Regatta IV, scheduled Feb. 13-15 on the Fort Lauderdale beach, is the GFLBSA`s biggest weekend of the year. But Grau won`t be on the water. As president of the association, he`ll have to do all the dirty work on shore.

``You really can`t imagine how much time and effort goes into organizing one of these races,`` said Bob Franklin, a yacht broker, GFLBSA member and Grau`s friend. ``It`s a great deal of work.``

Franklin said Grau will have to make snap decisions every minute based on the wind conditions on the water. Course directions and lengths aren`t set until Grau decides they are.

The amateur regatta is open to all boardsailors. Grau said he is especially interested in luring novices to participate.

``We pay attention to the novices,`` he said. ``One-third to one-half of the participants are novices. Everybody wants to race and we have trophies for each discipline.``

The GFLBSA began in 1983 as a reaction by Fort Lauderdale boardsailors to the city trying to restrict beach access for windsurfers. As they organized, the group began to host clinics and help the city keep the beach clean.

Eventually, they decided to host a ``premier`` regatta for amateurs in Fort Lauderdale. There was no such race in South Florida. Sunshine magazine and the News/Sun-Sentinel sponsored the race, hence the name. The News/Sun-Sentinel no longer gives any money, but the GFLBSA has kept the name.

At the time, racing was primarily restricted to one-class racing by Windsurfer-brand boards. Grau said the GFLBSA wanted to create a race that would let boardsailors with other brand boards an opportunity to race.

As windsurfing has evolved and the boards have improved in the last four years, the Sunshine Regatta has had to change the classes of races. The first regatta featured open class racing for boards with specific dimensions. Grau said open class racing, just three years later, is dead in South Florida.

The Windsurfer-brand class is dead, also, Grau said. The one-class division is now dominated by Mistral Superlights, an expensive specialized board used only by experienced sailors. Besides the course and long-distance races for the Superlights, there will also be ``world cup style`` or ``funboard`` racing on an M-shaped course.

This year`s regatta will, for the first time, have slalom racing. Slaloming requires winds of at least 15 mph and forces boardsailors to navigate a course with buoys that serve as gates.

Last year, Olympic hopeful Mike Gebhardt showed up for the Sunshine Regatta and easily beat any competition he met.

Gebhardt boasted then that the only person who could come close to him on a board would be Scott Steele, the leader of the U.S. men`s team and a silver medalist at the 1984 Olympics. Steele missed last year`s regatta because of prior commitments, but Grau said both may show up this year. Fort Lauderdale`s Dave Stanger was the overall winner in 1985 and will be on the beach this year.